{"id":13994,"date":"2018-11-19T14:31:06","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T19:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fertur-travel.com\/blog\/?p=13994"},"modified":"2023-08-25T15:26:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T20:26:58","slug":"who-was-the-real-indiana-jones-the-tomb-raiding-tale-of-peter-otoole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fertur-travel.com\/blog\/2018\/who-was-the-real-indiana-jones-the-tomb-raiding-tale-of-peter-otoole\/13994\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to know a Real Indiana Jones? Tomb Raiding Tales of Peter O’Toole"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So who was the real Indiana Jones? Most point to Hiram Bingham, the scientific \u201cdiscoverer\u201d of Machu Picchu. Many more say Hollywood\u2019s most beloved tomb raider was actually an amalgamation of that real-life Yale University explorer and Harry Steele, the harder boiled, treasure hunting protagonist from Secret of the Incas, a 1954 B-movie classic shot on location in Cusco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s another suspect. It\u2019s someone as legendary as Harrison Ford and twice the actor that Charlton Heston ever was. And three times as roguish, as well: Peter O\u2019Toole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, Peter O\u2019Toole, who died in 2013, and who is perhaps best known for his role as Lawrence of Arabia in the David Lean film of 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He never donned the iconic fedora and brown leather jacket on the big screen. No bull-whip. But between Oscar nominations for his portrayals of an ego-maniacal and spiritually damaged T.E. Laurence and the swashbuckling, redemptive drunk Alan Swann, Peter O\u2019Toole played a real-life role, fervidly looting ancient tombs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter O’Toole’s Tomb-Raiding Exploits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“O\u2019Toole\u2019s passion for archaeology and collecting antiquities began on Lawrence of Arabia, and was happily satisfied with each new far-flung location,” writes Robert Sellers in Peter O’Toole: The Definitive Biography<\/strong><\/em>.  “Dotted around the house were Noh masks from Japan, a bejeweled Persian chest and his particular favorite \u2014 pre-Columbian art.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Before he “tottered into antiquity” the Academy came to its senses and awarded Peter O’Toole an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The lengths to which  O’Toole would go for his “collecting” activities was quite astonishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He once confided to the photographer Bob Willoughby that he smuggled a pair of precious Greek earrings through customs by hiding them in his foreskin, resulting in some minor discomfort that lasted weeks,” Sellers reveals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Going off on excavation digs, O\u2019Toole explained to Malcolm McDowell on the set of Caligula<\/strong> that the best way to find Etruscan jewelry was to locate the drains in the tombs, and then to sift through all the grime with one\u2019s fingers because as the bodies decompose all the artifacts deposit themselves into the channels: ‘The thought of Peter O\u2019Toole on his hands and knees in an Etruscan catacomb makes for a lovely image.\u2019”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Toole lavished much of the ancient loot on his former wife, actress Si\u00e2n Phillips, who immortalized their travel adventures 24 years after their divorce, and a decade before his death, in her memoir, Public Places: My Life in the Theater, with Peter O\u2019Toole and Beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big chunk of Phillips\u2019 reminiscences focus on their escapades with American photographer Bob Willoughby after location filming of Murphy\u2019s Law in 1970 in the Venezuelan jungle. Always referring to her husband of 20 years as \u201cO\u2019Toole\u201d or simply \u201cthe Irishman,\u201d Phillips lyrically describes dense, mist shrouded rain forest and \u201cmassive, squat, sheersided, table-top mountains that seem to belong in a work of fantastic fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She, Willoughby and O\u2019Toole spent days with a Yanomama tribe. They made a death-defying helicopter journey to the apex of Angel Falls, \u201csetting down on a piece of flat ground\u201d that to Phillips\u2019 \u201cfevered, disturbed senses\u201d didn\u2019t \u201cseem to be much bigger than a grand piano.\u201d And they spent a night in the remote cabin of a shot-gun toting expatriate explorer called \u201cJungle Rudi\u201d who \u201ctalked on and on, directing his attention to O\u2019Toole only, speaking in an urgent, low monotone.\u201d\u00b9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adventure was supposed to end with a flight back to Caracas aboard a Cessna, but that was cut short by a violent storm and a forced emergency landing on a remote field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe pilot managed to land and we stood in the middle of nowhere with our bits of luggage \u2014 mainly Bob\u2019s equipment \u2014 until the pilot succeeded in raising a local taxi who was startled but game when we asked him to drive to Caracas, five or six hours away. Bob and O\u2019Toole pressed a great deal of money into the pilot\u2019s hand and off we lurched\u201d all the way to the luxury Hilton Hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visiting Machu Picchu: The Journey Fueled by Rogue Spirit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From there, Phillips and O\u2019Toole had planned to return home to England, but Willoughby\u2019s wife, Dorothy had been waiting for him at the Hilton:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018We\u2019re going to Machu Picchu<\/em><\/strong>,\u2019 they said. \u2018Not without us,\u2019 said O\u2019Toole and I went upstairs to pack and change the air tickets and telegraph London to say that we were safe and almost on the way home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They rendezvoused with their friends in Cusco and \u201cobediently followed all the rules for acclimatizing to this altitude; no alcohol and a four-hour sleep, then very slow movement for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like all the visitors, she wrote, they wanted to go to Machu Picchu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 1970 it was still an uncomfortable trip and along with a cartload of other tourists we felt slightly adventurous,\u201d Phillips remembered. \u201cThere was no place to stay, it was a bit like going to Petra ten years previously, and we were well able to rest curled up under a rock. Nothing can prepare one for Machu Picchu and nothing one can say can add to the descriptions or convey the wonder of it<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Mysterious Night-Time Pickup: O’Toole’s Risky Acquisition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Their night before heading back to London, O’Toole made a mysterious night-time pickup. Phillips’ account about the event is excerpted here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

We moved on to Lima where O\u2019Toole had a contact in the art world. Bob and his wife left us after the one conventional meal we were to enjoy and they also gave us money; we had run out but there was something called a credit card and it gave you money, no matter where you were. O\u2019Toole and I were mystified and impressed and grateful. Lima was the noisiest city I had ever been in \u2013 or was I now unused to urban din? O\u2019Toole went off to \u2018meet a man \u2014 don\u2019t ask\u2019 and I \u2018Wait here\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To pass the time, I pressed my dried plants (my mother would be fascinated to see them) and repacked our luggage and sat looking at the dark street. This city scared me somewhat, though I didn\u2019t know why. At four in the morning O\u2019Toole returned, exhausted, bearing a few plastic shopping bags. \u2018Pack these \u2014 don\u2019t look. God, I\u2019m tired.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fully clothed, he stretched out on the bed and slept. This man slept better and longer than anyone I knew. Dutifully, I didn\u2019t \u2018look\u2019 and I packed the objects in the luggage. When O\u2019Toole woke, we left for the airport and home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Bogota we landed unexpectedly and the plane was kept on the ground for hours. \u2018Sorry, love,\u2019 he said. \u2018I think the game\u2019s up. Don\u2019t forget you really don\u2019t know what\u2019s in those bags.\u2019 I tried to read and not contemplate the punishment for the unlawful liberating of works of art. Suddenly we were off!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn\u2019t look at him. It was the luck of the Irish, dammit. I felt sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Green Room of Guyon House, my mother and Kate and Pat and Liz and Manolita unpack and drink tea. \u2018Oh, thank God for a decent cup of tea,\u2019 groans the Irishman. \u2018Where\u2019s the jewelry?\u2019 \u2018What jewelry?\u2019 \u2018You know \u2013 the jewelry from Lima.\u2019 \u2018Was there any? You said not to look.\u2019 \u2018Oh Jaysus \u2014 I\u2019m surrounded by eejits.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Wait, wait,\u2019 soothes my mother and goes to search through the rubbish. \u2018Is this what you were looking for?\u2019 she says, holding up a ratty plastic shopping bag. \u2018Could be,\u2019 and he drops the most beautiful old necklaces over my head. The Pre-Columbian masks are put aside to be sent to our British Museum friend who will \u2018blow\u2019 the flattened gold back into shape and then they will be sent to Claude de Muzac<\/a> in Paris to be mounted<\/em><\/strong>. We all look at the beautiful, battered, soft gold faces. The girls stroke them and I can\u2019t feel too guilty about any of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\u2014Public Places: My Life in the Theater, with Peter O\u2019Toole and Beyond (May 29, 2003)
by Si\u00e2n Phillips<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Ill-Gotten Antiquities Revealed: Peter O’Toole’s World Class Collection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In May 2017, that collection went on sale. The Gallery catalog<\/a> displayed dozens of antiquities \u2014 Roman, Persian, Chinese and especially pre-Columbian artifacts, including Maya and Aztec pieces from Mexico and Central America; a gold Calima Gold Crown from Colombia…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And from Peru: Moche, Chimu and Nazca pottery and a hammered gold alloy Sic\u00e1n mask, blown into shape and beautifully mounted on a curved Plexiglas<\/span> display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The treasure trove of ancient artifacts and cultural patrimony<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peter O’Toole always was, and always will be, one of my all-time favorite actors. It would be nice, though, if that mask and the other relics \u2014 all cultural patrimony \u2014 that he “liberated” in 1970 were repatriated to the rightful owners, the people of Peru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sic\u00e1n Gold Mask.<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>       <\/span><\/span>
Hammered sheet gold alloy in relief with traces of red pigment.<\/span>
Sic\u00e1n culture, North Coast Peru. Circa 700-1200 A.D. <\/span>
Price \u00a36,000.00<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
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\u00b9This cursory citation does not do justice to Phillips’ mood-inducing description of “Jungle Rudy.” Rudolf Truffino\u00a0Van Der Lugt was a Dutch adventurer who\u00a0could very well have been portrayed by O’Toole on the big screen. He was ruggedly handsome. He successfully explored uncharted swaths of seemingly impenetrable Venezuelan jungle. He started a family, homesteading in the remote shadow of Angel Falls, and built a rustic lodge for a mix of jetsetters and pioneering explorers. Beset by personal demons,\u00a0Jungle Rudy<\/a>\u00a0died in 1994 on a hammock, alone, abandoned by his three daughters \u2014 broken and friendless.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So who was the real Indiana Jones? Most point to Hiram Bingham, the scientific \u201cdiscoverer\u201d of Machu Picchu. Many more say Hollywood\u2019s most beloved tomb raider was actually an amalgamation of that real-life Yale University explorer and Harry Steele, the harder boiled, treasure hunting protagonist from Secret of the Incas, a 1954 B-movie classic shot…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[956,955],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-13994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-antiquities-smuggling","tag-celebrities-in-peru","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t